AUBURN, Alabama -- The indelible imprint Iris Prosch left on
her only son is easy to spot, particularly for those who knew her best.

His size came from her side of the family, a frame he's
built into a comic-book physique, one of the strongest college football players
in the nation.

But it's her heart that influenced Jay Prosch most.

Auburn fullback Jay Prosch (35) works out during practice Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2013, at the Auburn Football Complex in Auburn, Ala. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)

For a man built like a boulder, Prosch's personality is
incredibly warm, unfailingly polite and the kind of guy who apologizes even
when there's no need, when his dog surprises a neighbor getting into his car on
his way out the door or he accidentally tosses a Frisbee onto somebody else's
balcony.

He has her faith, her manners, her desire to put everybody
else's needs ahead of her own.

"In a lot of ways, and this is the neat part about it, he's
a lot like my mom," his oldest sister, Julia Haupt, said. "He doesn't want to be
the one you have to worry about. Our mom was like that in so many ways."

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This training camp feels so different for Prosch.

A year ago, he took the field for his first season at Auburn
trying to focus on football but inevitably pulled back toward Mobile, where his
mother was battling the final stages of brain cancer.

"This time last
year she was very, very sick, she was out of it completely," Prosch said. "Camp's
a grind, but when you have something like that on your mind, it makes it so
much harder."

Prosch, a UMS-Wright product who spent his first two seasons
at Illinois, transferred to Auburn last year to be closer to his mother, who
was diagnosed with brain cancer in the spring of 2011.

At the time, she was still battling the disease in a joint
venture with the Mitchell Cancer Center in Mobile and at Duke University, but
on a trip to North Carolina for the birth of Haupt's son, her grandson,
Crawford, last summer, Iris took a turn for the worse, 10 weeks before she
passed away.

Prosch, another one of his sisters and his mother tried to
go to the Atlanta Aquarium on the way back, and his mother fell.

Her son picked Iris up and carried her to the car. On the way home, his sister said, Prosch held her arms the whole way home and to the hospital.

He kept playing that role as things got worse, as dementia took hold. At first, he was there taking her hand when she moved in the house, and then, after things really got bad, picked her up and carried her from the hospital bed in his room to her bed, then back again.

Prosch's older sisters – Haupt, Amy Hagler and Loren Prosch, an Auburn student – had to make a lot of major decisions about their mother's care, had to be there when Prosch was in Auburn on the football field.

In turn, he became their pillar of strength when they needed it most.

"He became the one we looked to to kind of keep it together," Haupt said. "We figured if he had it together, we'd be OK. ... Jay gave us the chance to just sit back and really absorb what was going on and come to grips with it."

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Iris Prosch slipped into a coma the same night that her son made his Auburn debut against Clemson. Two days later, she died, and her children buried her on a Thursday.

"It was a relief almost because she was so sick, she was in pain," Prosch said. "She still knew who we were, but she wasn't herself at all. ... When she passed, obviously it was sad to lose our mother, but we were also relieved because she's in a better place. She's in heaven."

That Saturday, Prosch started against Mississippi State.

Iris had already asked him to keep playing.

"Before she got really bad, to all of us, she was like,
don't worry about me, keep living your lives," Prosch said. "That's why I was
able to go ahead and play at Mississippi State and not feel guilty, not feel
like I was brushing it off. It's what she would have wanted."

As Auburn's season fell apart, Prosch soldiered on, playing
hard while dealing with a grief that sometimes broke him down into tears.

His faith and his family kept him going.

Prosch was brought up in his mother's church, First Baptist
North Mobile. He leaned on God, trusting that everything happened for a reason.
The thought of heaven offered him relief.

And he and his sisters prayed together, even when Haupt was
in Raleigh, N.C., Amy Hagler in Mobile and Loren and Jay in Auburn. He and his
sisters sent hundreds of group text messages, making each other laugh, offering
support.

"We would text each other Bible verses and say 'let's pray
this together tonight," Haupt said. "We'd even give ourselves a time, say at 5
o'clock, we'll do this. ... Picking a time and praying together really helped us
stay strong."

Prosch didn't feel the cloud start to clear until the end of
the season, a disastrous 2012 campaign that he didn't see coming and added
another layer to the adversity despite his status as one of Auburn's lone
bright spots.

He had been through tough times before that prepared him for
last fall's trials – Prosch didn't want to elaborate – but experience in the
darkness doesn't always immediately lead to the light.

"There were
times last year that it felt like there were so many things coming down on me
all at the same time," Prosch said. "That can have an effect."

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Auburn's fall camp feels different for the Tigers' senior fullback this year.

"This year, it feels so much better, and I think it's
because I don't have that on my mind anymore," Prosch said. "Right now I feel
relaxed, I'm more focused and I feel great about the position we're in."

A natural leader, Prosch has set an example for the rest of Auburn's roster this offseason, becoming a vocal presence in the locker room and earning praise from new Tigers coach Gus Malzahn.

"The first year I got here, it was kind of tough because I didn’t know any of the guys and they didn’t know anything about me," Prosch said. "After last year, I know the guys better, they know me, so I felt it was easy as a senior to step up and really take that role.

His teammates have noticed the change as the Tigers prepared
over the summer and got ready for camp.

"I see a new Jay," Tigers running back Corey Grant said.
"He's worked hard, he's a great leader, and I can tell there's a difference in
him."

Auburn fullback Jay Prosch (35) powers his way in for a touchdown as he is tackled by Alabama A&M defensive lineman Preston Nelson (94) during the first half of an NCAA college football game on Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012 in Auburn, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)

Prosch still carries his mother with him on every snap.

After her death, he got a tattoo on the inside of his right
bicep, a simple, beautiful rendering of an iris and a saying he first got from
Chette Williams, Auburn's team chaplain.

"'Life's not about learning how to get through the storm but
learning to dance in the rain,'" Prosch said. "Everything may be crashing down,
but it's not about how to get through it, it's about rejoicing and living and
enjoying it when things are bad."

Before the cancer really took hold, Iris kept moving,
going to Jay's games, making it to the birth of her grandson, taking trips with
her children.